Sport Arena names the best in the First League of the 2023/24 season, round by round, and provides exclusive statistics. The best player, wild card, young player, coach and hero of the tour, as well as the best goal, main numbers and much more
Game program of the 1st round (video report here)
| Group “Champion” | Elimination Group |
| Friday, March 22 | Friday, March 22 |
| Prykarpattya ‒ Inhulets ‒ 0:1 | Gornyak-Sport – Nyva (Ternopil) – 0:1 |
| Saturday, March 23 | Saturday, March 23 |
| Kudrovka-Niva – Left Bank ‒ 1:5 | FC Chernigov ‒ Podolia – 2:2 |
| Epicenter – FSK Mariupol ‒ 1:1 | Metallurg – FC Khust – 1:4 |
| Karpaty – SK Poltava – 2:1 | Sunday, March 24 |
| Sunday, March 24 | Kremen – Metalist ‒ 0:0 |
| Agribusiness – Victoria – 0:0 | Dinaz ‒ Bukovyna – 0:2 |
Already traditional:
- Read soon on our website the symbolic team of the next round
- interview with the hero of the tour, whom Sport Arena determines together with the PFL
And now – our individual nominations:
In the hero city of Bucha, the Left Bank withstood a difficult test, let the score of 5:1 not be misleading. The renewed Kudrovka-Niva resisted, did not allow the guests to fully combine before the break and even equalized the numbers on the scoreboard soon after the break. However, in the minority, which became double by the end of the game, the rapidly renewed home team suffered a crushing defeat. The head coach of the Kiev team got it right with both the tactics for the game and the substitutions.
- Analysis from the All-Ukrainian Association of Football Coaches – Here.
This is a good tour for bench players. Left Bank debutant Sydney scored already in the 6th minute, newcomer Ingulza Sad scored the winning goal 15 minutes after entering the field against ex-teammates from Prykarpattya, spring recruit Khusta Chaban scored a goal after 27 minutes, and Zubkov from FSK Mariupol after 36. Each of These players have their own cost of effective action, their own history and background. But even against the background of such high-quality jokers, Budnyak stands out. Playing his first match for the new team, within a minute after entering the field, Ivan scored both goals in Demidov: he fought for the ball at the initial stage, when Sergiychuk opened the scoring from Goncharuk’s cross, and then scored himself.
- Sport Arena statistics: 18 league matches, 2 goals.
The Metallurg – FC Khust match turned out to be scandalous, but ended in victory for the Transcarpathians. A minute after conceding the goal, midfielder Shevchuk played with Prikhodko and scored with a targeted shot, then he could score more, and in the end he gave an assist to Garnaga, having fought his way through several opponents.
- Sport Arena statistics: 13 league matches, 4 goals, 3 assists.
What kind of tour is this! How the First League explodes after a rest! Luxurious goals were scored with targeted shots by Khustyan Shevchuk, Lviv resident Polegenko, Kamensk resident Kravchuk, Chernigov resident Krivoborodenko. We are adding all these goals to the short list of the best of the season! But even they are somewhat in the shadow compared to the masterpiece of Kudrovka-Buzovka Misyura, who fired from such a distance, so without a chance for the goalkeeper that well!.. We quote the report: “Kudrovka-Niva did not plan such a start in the spring part of the season, but it was still amazing how immediately after the conversation with the head coach the home team came out after the break. Matveev’s cross pass, a juicy right-footed shot from centerback Misyura from 25 meters – and the ball hit the crossbar closer to the top corner! 1:1 – this is Evgeniy’s first goal of the season, but he previously scored in the Second League.”
Read later on our website an interview with the player who, with his two goals, brought the leader a difficult victory over SK Poltava.
- Sport Arena statistics: 19 matches in the championship, 5 goals, 3 assists.
The face of Agribusiness football player Maxim Voytikhovsky after the match with Victoria / photo: screenshot of the broadcast youtube.com/@pfl_ukraine
No one has taken penalty kicks more often than Ingulets this season, but four out of 10 penalties were not converted by the leader of Group B and one of the favorites in the championship round.
A few more interesting things:
- Gornyk-Sport suffered its 120th defeat in the First League
- The 50th match in the First League was played by Orest Panchishin (Kremin), Oleg Len (Agribusiness)
- Alexander Chizhevsky played his 80th coaching match in the First League: +34=24-22 goals 101-76
More interesting things can be found in the digital selection of the PFL, the information partner of which is Sport Arena.
World youth champion Kucheruk, in his debut match for Prykarpattya, immediately survived a penalty kick into his own goal, but the opponent (Koltsov from Inhulets) missed / photo fc.if.ua
As you know, this season the clubs participating in the PFL voted for an updated format: if previously, in the second stage, teams were counted points exclusively in matches with opponents of their categories (conditionally, in the Championship round – the leaders get points with the leaders, in the Elimination – outsiders get points with outsiders ), then now all points are saved in full from the autumn part of the season.
We wondered, what would the group tables look like using the old format? Something like this:
- Group “Champion”
| M | Team | AND | IN | N | P | Mz | MP | +/- | ABOUT |
| 1 | Carpathians (Lviv) | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 8 | +8 | 20 |
| 2 | Ingulets (Petrovo) | 9 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 16 | 7 | +9 | 19 |
| 3 | Left Bank (Kyiv) | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 19 | 10 | +9 | 13 |
| 4 | FSK Mariupol | 9 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 6 | +1 | 12 |
| 5 | Epicenter (Kamyanets-Podilskyi) | 9 | 2 | 5 | 2 | eleven | 12 | -1 | eleven |
| 6 | Prykarpattya (Ivano-Frankivsk) | 9 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 12 | eleven | +1 | eleven |
| 7 | SK Poltava | 9 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 17 | -7 | 9 |
| 8 | Kudrovka-Niva (Buzovaya) | 9 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 14 | -6 | 8 |
| 9 | Victoria (Nikolaevka) | 9 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 3 | eleven | -8 | 8 |
| 10 | Agribusiness (Volochisk) | 9 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 5 | eleven | -6 | 7 |
- Elimination Group
| M | Team | AND | IN | N | P | Mz | MP | +/- | ABOUT |
| 1 | Bukovina (Chernivtsi) | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 7 | +3 | 17 |
| 2 | Podolia (Khmelnitsky) | 9 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 14 | 7 | +7 | 16 |
| 3 | Kremen (Kremenchuk) | 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 12 | 8 | +4 | 15 |
| 4 | FC Khust | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 15 | 14 | +1 | 13 |
| 5 | FC Chernigov | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 16 | 17 | -1 | 13 |
| 6 | Metallurg (Zaporozhye) | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | eleven | 12 | -1 | eleven |
| 7 | Niva (Ternopil) | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 7 | -1 | eleven |
| 8 | Dinaz (Vyshgorod) | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 12 | -2 | eleven |
| 9 | Metallist (Kharkov) | 9 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 10 | -4 | 9 |
| 10 | Gornyak-Sport (Horishni Plavni) | 9 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 12 | -6 | 9 |
Standings after the first stage
- Group “Champion”
- Elimination Group
- Bombers
| Player | Team | Goals | Pen |
| Khoma Andrey | Prykarpattya (Ivano-Frankivsk) | 12 | |
| Shcherbak Dmitry | SK Poltava | 10 | (2) |
| Spivakov Andrey | Left Bank (Kyiv) | 10 | (5) |
| Palagnyuk Vasily | Bukovina (Chernivtsi) | 9 | (3) |
| Koltsov Vitaly | Ingulets (Petrovo) | 9 | (6) |
| Kozak Alexander | Ingulets (Petrovo) | 8 | |
| Sukhoruchko Daniil | Left Bank (Kyiv) | 8 | |
| Igor Neves Alves | Carpathians (Lviv) | 8 | (1) |
| Garden Valery | Ingulets (Petrovo) | 7 | (3) |
| Palamar Ruslan | Dinaz (Vyshgorod) | 7 | (4) |
| Vivdich Alexander | SK Poltava | 6 | |
| Kravchuk Daniil | Epicenter (Kamenets-Podolsky) | 6 | |
| Gorny Maxim | Epicenter (Kamenets-Podolsky) | 6 | (2) |
- Assistants
| Player | Team | Passes |
| Zaporozhets Evgeniy | ***Ingulets (Petrovo)*** | 8 |
| Shmigelsky Bogdan | SK Poltava | 8 |
| Kogut Ivan | Left Bank (Kyiv) | 7 |
| Astakhov Ernest | Left Bank (Kyiv) | 5 |
| Kostenko Yan | Carpathians (Lviv) | 5 |
| Prikhodko Nazar | FC Khust | 5 |
| Shcherbak Dmitry | SK Poltava | 5 |
| Belotserkovets Vladimir | Metallurg (Zaporozhye) | 4 |
| Buzhin Nikolay | SK Poltava | 4 |
| Voitsekhovsky Vladislav | Left Bank (Kyiv) | 4 |
| Mount Bogdan | Gornyak-Sport (Horishni Plavni) | 4 |
| Dvorovenko Vladislav | Bukovina (Chernivtsi) | 4 |
| Orobets Ivan | Podolia (Khmelnitsky) | 4 |
| Savitsky Andrey | Kremen (Kremenchuk) | 4 |
| Ulyanov Dmitry | Victoria (Nikolaevka) | 4 |
| Tsyutsyura Vasily | Prykarpattya (Ivano-Frankivsk) | 4 |
- Goal+ass
| Player | Team | Games | Goal+Pass | Goals |
| Shcherbak Dmitry | SK Poltava | 15 | 10 | 5 |
| Khoma Andrey | Prykarpattya (Ivano-Frankivsk) | 13 | 12 | 1 |
| Shmigelsky Bogdan | SK Poltava | 12 | 4 | 8 |
| Spivakov Andrey | Left Bank (Kyiv) | eleven | 10 | 1 |
| Palagnyuk Vasily | Bukovina (Chernivtsi) | 10 | 9 | 1 |
| Koltsov Vitaly | Ingulets (Petrovo) | 9 | 9 | 0 |
| Igor Neves Alves | Carpathians (Lviv) | 9 | 8 | 1 |
| Kozak Alexander | Ingulets (Petrovo) | 9 | 8 | 1 |
| Sukhoruchko Daniil | Left Bank (Kyiv) | 9 | 8 | 1 |
| Garden Valery | Ingulets (Petrovo) | 9 | 7 | 2 |
| Kravchuk Daniil | Epicenter (Kamenets-Podolsky) | 9 | 6 | 3 |
| Kostenko Yan | Carpathians (Lviv) | 9 | 4 | 5 |
| Kogut Ivan | Left Bank (Kyiv) | 9 | 2 | 7 |
* * *
All calculations by Arthur Valerko, SportArena.com. The material was written by the author in Ukrainian.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
